Before i get into the AAR i want to say a few things.
First off, i would like to take a second to thank Chris Costa, Patrick Garcia, Sharron at Pop Deans range and last but not least Omi Ramirez for making all of this happen. Without your dedication the class never would have occurred and a weekend full of fun and informative training would never have taken place. Last but not least the entire class receives a huge round of applause and a big thank you. Everyone’s attitude at the class was beyond friendly, very encouraging and the levels of camaraderie and openness at these magpul classes is astounding.
Moving beyond the thank you’s i would like to take a second to explain why i choose Magpul Dynamics for my training needs.
As a college student and a new business owner i find myself with limited disposable income and extremely limited time. This means that i must carefully pick where my disposable green goes without wantonly throwing it in the wind. Prior to training with Magpul i had attended a low cost basic fundamentals of marksmanship class that left me completely uninspired. I will not name any names and i will not disparage anyone on the internet but i will readily explain why this class was not worth my time or money.
For starters, the instructor didnt demonstrate anything. There was no level of skill shown by someone who is supposed to have been there and done that. Any and all of his tactics were left completely unproven, merely thrown on the table for end user consumption. I compare this to a chef that has never tasted his own creations. How does one know it is good for the pallet?
Magpul however, takes a multifaceted approach to explaining and exemplifying their training curriculum. Both Chris, Travis and Patrick are not shy to bombard our soft civvie noggins with the harsh reality of why these tactics work. A simple explanation behind the physical deed/drill is given followed by a demonstration. Questions are then taken and if further explanation is required the drill will either be demoed again to reinforce points or verbal expansion upon the original idea will ensue.
The Magpul guys have found a nice balance between brain spew and physical demonstration. Their verbal explanations are to the point with no wasted breath. Interestingly enough, the Magpul fellas are always talking about the biomechanics of shooting. The same principle of no wasted movement applies to their lectures between evolutions and drills. I noticed at several points during the class the riveted demeanor of everyone attending. There was no fidgeting, no lost concentration or overall lack of disinterest. Magpul’s instructors have just the right blend of serious intent, charisma and charm to keep everyones attention on point. This makes for an enjoyable class experience and a very conducive atmosphere for retention of the information being thrown at us.
Shifting gears slightly, not to toot the horn of Magpul too much i have to point out that even the best instructors will struggle with a class that does not desire to take the material seriously. I again want to commend this class for taking everything that was thrown at them to heart and genuinely trying to excel. It is an amazing thing to watch people absorb material and better themselves over the course of a few hours. If i may, i would like to loosely quote someone from the class. I wont name names but one of the females explained that she was taking the class to protect her children. She was there to learn anything and everything she possibly could in order to safeguard the lives of those she is responsible for. Talk about Maternal instinct! Very cool thing to hear and even cooler to stand by and witness a change and growth in skill level as the days progressed.
It was a long weekend and an even longer week so forgive me for not remembering the exact progression of the two day training class but i will do my best to explain what i remember.
Day One
Started with a basic but thorough safety briefing followed by a short and informative lecture on the basics of gripping the pistol, sight picture and stance. Each point was accentuated with a live fire demo explaining the essentials of the fundamentals. Mastering the fundamentals will make you a better shooter when the stress fairy comes a calling.
As the day progressed we continued to increase the cadence of fire with a specific intent. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Instead of merely firing two shots at 30% speed, we were asked to rev our engines to 50% while still retaining combat accurate hits. The intent behind the first days drills were to maintain a balance of speed and accuracy. As the day progressed it was interesting to watch the students as their engines revved a little harder. Throw the foot on the gas pedal just a little harder and watch the groupings expand. Back off of on the proverbial RPM’s and watch everything tighten up again. From the seven yard line we moved back to the 15 and resumed drilling. From that point on we continued moving back to about the 40ish yard line and again, commenced firing. The groups at this point had opened up significantly but an emphasis on speed and urgency never faded. Dont take what you can get Chris and Patrick could be heard saying. Fundamentals at that range are everything. A proper sight picture, grip and stance will allow you to hit your target while still retaining enough speed to get on target in the proper amount of time. One thing that i must add here is that all of these drills were done according to a timer. We were required to punch out, hit our targets with two consecutive shots, search and assess and then rinse and repeat. The times that we had to come in under were dependent upon the range at which we were shooting.
I personally am not a fast shooter but i spent the morning doing my best to find that blend. I met my threshold of acceptable accuracy and attempted to speed up from there by working on my fundamentals. I was pleased to say that by the end of the first half of the morning i had significantly sped up my ability to punch out on the target, acquire my sight and press that trigger smoothly to the rear.
Shooters broke for lunch after having the fundamentals “pounded” into their heads with a velvet mallet.
After returning from our lunch break the shooters jammed some magazines and approached the line. Chris and Patrick were ready to take us to the next level. It was time for the draw. Again, i must point something out. While the fundamentals are exceptionally important so too is a sense of urgency. Every drill, every demo and every word from the instructors mouths was in the spirit of urgency. There is no lollygagging here. Get the gun out, get it up, and get in the fight. Proper draw techniques were discussed and demoed and safety was strictly enforced from this point out. No muzzle sweeps were accepted and the class was keenly aware of the need for increased devotion for safe gun handling at this point in the class.
Shifting gears slightly, let me say that Safarilands are fast, i however, am not. My draw from my 6004 sucked, hard. Chris helped me by pointing out that my leg rig should be raised about an inch to help me speed up my draw and that did indeed work. That however didnt stop me from fumbling with the hood time and time again. Chris pulled me over to the side, and explained in detail how i could speed up my draw times. He demonstrated and showed me successfully the proper way in which i could deploy the hood in order to access my gun faster. One thing that he pointed out that i was unaware of was my wasted motion. I was sweeping my hand forward to deploy the hood and then coming back up on the weapon to grip it and draw. Again, the principle of biomechanics, wasted motion=wasted time. Get on the gun, and get it into the fight!
As a side note, the ability of the instructors to pick up on flaws in fundamentals is astounding. Chris and Patrick were always on hand to make minute corrections, offer constructive criticism and advise whenever it was needed. As the drills progressed you would see them everywhere at once making adjustments for individual students. Everyone received the individual attention they required, IF they required it.
Forgive me for not being too specific on the drills and their order, like i mentioned, its been a loooonngg week and my brain is a puddle of dribble at this point.
We broke for dinner and came back with the intent of doing some low light and no light shooting.
After dinner the class was tired but the willingness to learn had not waned and we quickly returned to the firing line.
Chris and Patrick were ready to go with quite a few flashlight techniques. They demoed where and when each technique works and which would be considered optimal for most situations. It was requested that even if we had a weapon mounted light we should start the drills with a handheld to do our best to retain the information should we ever need it.
During lowlight and no light shooting the fundamentals became paramount. With a modified grip it was now required for the shooters to possess a near perfect trigger pull and sight picture in order to acquire and hit the target. I particularly liked these drills because again, the fundamentals reared their ugly head and i was forced to apply what i had learned throughout the day.
If anyone works a night shift i would strongly suggest taking a pistol class with Magpul. They detailed several priceless techniques for shooting in the dark that could potentially save ones life. An example would be how to pick up your front sight when you have no tritium inserts.
The night shoot ended, the range was policed and everyone headed home for some well deserved rest. I left the range that day disappointed in my own performance but exceptionally pleased with the amount of information i had picked up and hopefully retained.
Day Two
Kicked off with nary a delay and the shooters approached the line hungry for more information and instruction. We began the day with positional shooting, combat knee, urban prone and quickly progressed into one handed shooting and malfunction clearing.
Some key points were being aware of your surroundings when you drop into urban prone and being aware of what your body parts are doing as you drop. I came very close to sweeping my reaction hand during one urban prone drill and it was pointed out to me. I didnt repeat that mistake again at any time during the rest of the drills despite my sense of urgency to get my face into the dirt and start shooting. Biomechanics at work again. Study wasted or imprecise movement and eliminate it to increase your speed.
The one handed shooting component of the day was particularly enlightening for me personally because i found i was shooting one fast, ragged hole at the target at any range. I came to the conclusion that i needed to work on my reactionary hand while gripping the pistol in order to remove some imprecise counter pressure in my grip that was causing me to shoot inaccurately. I spent the rest of the day being acutely aware of what my reaction hand was doing.
After working on basic malfunction clearing we moved into stovepipes and double feeds. I particularly like these drills since my pistol has only suffered one malfunction in 18k rounds. I never get to drill them unless i intentionally set it up so its always a welcome addition to any training regimen. This kind of training will save your life in the event that your tool fails you at the wrong moment. Prior to taking this class i had a rudimentary understanding of how to clear malfunctions but i was severely lacking in practice and application. I also picked up several vital pieces of information about how to recognize your malfunction type on the fly so you can apply the correct procedure to fix it.
After working the malfunctions on the line we broke for lunch. After gassing up with some grub we all returned for some barricade shooting. The steel was broken out and we began really having some fun.
Chris and Patrick demoed proper cover/concealment behind the barricade and why certain techniques were optimal over others. It is amazing just how little one can reveal while shooting around a barricade or obstacle.
We began by shooting around the plywood barricades and quickly progressed into shooting through them. After firing through the barricades constantly aware of where our muzzles were in relation to the obstruction in front of us we combined both training elements. Shooting around and through cover.
The day ended with several timed drills on steel and we as students got to see how we had progressed throughout the class. The final drills brought the entire weekend to a head with the inclusion and integration of the mass of information thrown at us over a two day period. Those that struggled during the draw session of the class struggled with the final steel drills. Those that hadnt mastered their grip struggled to hit the offset steel targets. Thankfully, this class was filled with a great bunch of students that paid attention, did their best to apply what they learned and as a result excelled marvelously at the final drills.
The day ended with a very satisfied class and certificates were handed out and feedback was requested. Part of the magic behind Magpul Dynamics is that both Chris, Travis and Patrick are learning themselves every day. They have a constant desire to better themselves and in turn better their students. They were very receptive to suggestions and genuinely appreciative of the feedback that the class gave them.
Overall, i would say that the class was a sure success and i know that i definitely improved as a shooter. Should this class return to South Florida i will attend it again so long as my finances allow.
Sorry for the long review/AAR but i believe a great company like this is very deserving of a thoughtful and detailed writeup. For anyone interested in taking a Magpul class i hope this serves as a guide for what they can expect and what will be expected of them.
Pictures will be forthcoming at a fairly slow pace, i am still compiling all of them and making sure they’re up to snuff.
Lastly, i would again like to thank Chris and Patrick for being two genuinely awesome guys and Sharron and Omi for making this happen. To everyone i met at the class, thank you for being who you are and composing yourselves in as professional a manner as you all did. You are all a fine collection of shooters and people!
For anyone else in South Florida that owns a carbine, get yourself on the list for the Magpul Dynamics Dynamic Rifle 1 class on March 20th and 21st.
Head on over here for more information:
